Safety ant-poison bottle

ABSTRACT

A LABYRINTH WITH WHICH AN ANT POISON BOTTLE MAY BE EQUIPPED, SAID LABYRINTH CONSISTING IN AN APERTURED CLOSURE FOR THE NECK OF THE BOTTLE, A PAIR OF CONCENTRIC TUBES, OUTER ENDS OF WHICH ARE MOUNTED ON SAID CLOSURE SO AS TO CLOSE THE OUTER END OF THE OUTER TUBE WHILE ALLOWING THE OUTER END OF THE INNER TUBE TO CONNECT WITH THE EXTERIOR OF THE BOTTLE THROUGH THE APERTURE IN SAID BOTTLE NECK CLOSURE THE INNER END OF THE OUTER TUBE BEING CLOSED, THE OUTER TUBE HAVING A RELATIVELY SMALL INSECT ACCESS OPENING IN THE WALL THEREOF NEAR THE MID POINT OF THE SPACE ENCLOSED BY THE BOTTLE. THE INNER END OF THE INNER TUBE IS OPEN AND EXTENDS INWARDLY WELL BEYOND SAID INSECT ACCESS OPENING, THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID TUBES DEFINING A RESERVOIR WITH A CAPACITY SUBSTANTIALLY IN EXCESS OF THE FIRST TUBE THEREBY CONTAINING A GREATER QUANTITY OF THE LIQUID POISON THAN A CHILD COULD PRACTICALLY MANAGE TO INTRODUCE THROUGH SAID INSECT ACCESS OPENING INTO SAID OUTER TUBE BY MANIPULATION OF THE BOTTLE, SAID LABYRINTH THEREBY PRACTICALLY PREVENTING ADMISSION OF SUCH POISON INTO THE INNER END OF THE INNER TUBE WHICH ALONE COULD CAUSE POISON TO FLOW THROUGH SAID INNER TUBE TO THE OUTER END THEREOF AND THUS BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE CHILD.

NOV. 16, NST LL ETAL SAFETY ANT-POISON BOTTLE Filed 0013. 21, 1969 H 4 INVENTORS.

W/L FRED TU/VSTALL ALBERT WEG/VER ATTORNE Y.

Patented Nov. 16, 1971 3,619,934 SAFETY ANT-POISON BOTTLE Wilfred Tunstall, 12874 2nd St., Yucaipa, Calif. 92399, and Albert Wegner, 223 Syllmer Court, Calimesa, Calif.

Filed Oct. 21, 1969, Ser. No. 868,104 Int. Cl. B65d 55/02; G01m N20 US. Cl. 43-131 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A labyrinth with which an ant poison bottle may be equipped, said labyrinth consisting in an apertured closure for the neck of the bottle, a pair of concentric tubes, outer ends of which are mounted on said closure so as to close the outer end of the outer tube while allowing the outer end of the inner tube to connect with the exterior of the bottle through the aperture in said bottle neck closure the inner end of the outer tube being closed, the outer tube having a relatively small insect access opening in the wall thereof near the mid point of the space enclosed by the bottle. The inner end of the inner tube is open and extends inwardly well beyond said insect access opening, the space between said tubes defining a reservoir with a capacity substantially in excess of the first tube thereby containing a greater quantity of the liquid poison than a child could practically manage to introduce through said insect access opening into said outer tube by manipulation of the bottle, said labyrinth thereby practically preventing admission of such poison into the inner end of the inner tube which alone could cause poison to flow through said inner tube to the outer end thereof and thus be made available to the child.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Notwithstanding the wide and effective use made of the conventional Antrol ant-poison bottle in control of ants, the liquid poison contained in these bottle is readily accessible to small children and no adequate safety measures have been devised to protect children from being thus poisoned.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide an inexpensive labyrinth with which each ant-poison bottle may be equipped, which will be located inside the bottle and which, while allowing ants ready access to the poison therein, will deny such access to children.

Another object of the invention is to provide such an inexpensive labyrinth with which each ant-poison bottle may be equipped, which will have an inner opening near the center of the space confined by the bottle which will be of small size but yet large enough to allow the passage of insects therethrough and which will be connected by said labyrinth with the outside of the bottle by such a devious passageway as will defeat all efforts of an infant to secure liquid from the bottle by shaking the same while holding the bottle in various positions for such a length of time as to weary the infant in such efforts and thereby protect the infant from the poison in the bottle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an enlarged vertical longitudinal sectional View of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cap end view of FIG. 1 with a portion of the screw cap enclosing cup broken away to show the Wrench engaging holes provided in said screw cap.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of the bottle of the invention inverted (cap downward) to illustrate how the quantity of liquid ant-poison normally used in such bottles will not thus be caused to gravitate into said labyrinth and thus shows how the escape of poison from the bottle by such a manipulation is prevented.

FIG. 5 is an elevational view of a bi-point wrench.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention is shown in the drawings as embodied in a safety ant-poison bottle 10 which comprises basically a conventional ant-poison bottle 11 having a flat side 12 and an externally threaded neck 13 with a cylindrical bore 14 which communicates with the space 15 enclosed by said bottle, and a novel labyrinth 16 'which is installed in the bottle neck and which functions to allow ready access to a body of liquid poison 17 contained in said bottle, but denies access to said poison to children of a tender age into whose hands the bottle 10 might come.

The labyrinth 16 embraces a sealing element 18 which includes a plug 19 which snugly fits the bore 14 of the bottle 11 and a radial flange 20 extending from the upper end of said plug and which fits against the end of neck 13 when the labyrinth 16 is installed in bottle 11. The plug 19 is provided with a central bore 25, the inner end portion of which is counter bored to receive a stiff smalldiameter inner tube 26, while said plug also has an annular cylindrical slot 27 for receiving an end portion of an outer tube 28 so that said tubes are suspended within said bottle in concentric axial relation with the bore 14 of said bottle neck when the labyrinth 16 is installed in the latter. The inner end of outer tube 28 is closed in any desired manner such as by the insertion therein of a plug 29. The outer tube 28 is provided with a relatively small hole 30 which is located as close as possible to the volumetric center of space 15, the purpose of this particular location of hole 30 being pointed out hereinafter.

The present invention also includes a safety bottle cap 31 which is an improved modification of the bottle cap disclosed in the aforesaid co-pending Tunstall application, said improvement comprising a conventional type screw cap 32 which is centrally apertured, a centrally apertured overlying cup 33 and an eyelet 34 which is applied to said cap and cup so as to occupy the central apertures thereof and join these two elements together so that they are freely rotatable relative to each other. The cap 32 is provided with a pair of diametrically opposed eccentric holes 35 which are covered by the cup 33 and thus hidden from view except when two correspondingly located diametric ally opposed holes 40 which are provided in the cup 33 are brought into alignment with the holes 40 which are provided in the cup 33 are brought into alignment with the holes 35 by rotation of said cup about the eyelet 34.

A suitable wrench 41 is provided with the safety antpoison bottle 10 to users of the latter who desire to periodically remove the labyrinth from the bottle in order to clean this out and replace the poison 17 with a fresh charge of poison. The wrench 41 has two spaced points or lugs 42 which are adapted to be inserted through the holes 40 and into the holes 35 when these holes are brought into alignment by rotation of the cup 33 so that the improved safety bottle cap 31 may thus be applied or removed from the threaded neck 13 of bottle 11 by a responsible adult employing the bottle 10 for the control of ants.

There is standard practice, in employing ant-poison bottles such as the bottle 11, to introduce only a relatively small amount of liquid poison 17 into the bottle 11 at a given time, such as is shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 of the drawings. When following this conventional practice, in use of the safety ant-poison bottle 10 of the present invention, it is practically impossible for a child of tender years who would be irresponsible enough to attempt to drink some of the liquid from the bottle, to gain access to this by tilting the bottle into any conceivable position. The reason for this is that, no matter what position the bottle be placed in, the body of liquid poison 17 in the bottle does not have access to the hole 30 in the outer tube 28 of the labyrinth 16 and unless the poison has access to this hole none of it can be removed from the bottle. FIG. 4, for instance, illustrates the bottle inverted with the cap end downward and shows how the upper level of the liquid poison is below the level of the hole 30 and thus does not have access to said hole. FIG. 1 shows the bottle lying on its flat side 12 which is the normal position for its use in poisoning ants and the liquid poison 17 in the bottle in this position is entirely out of contact with the hole 30 provided for the entrance of ants into the bottle.

The drawings in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are made to scale of the preferred embodiment of the invention and enlarge the latter to twice its normal size. The dimensions of the parts of the safety ant-poison bottle as actually used, which is to say about half the dimensions of those shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, are ample for the entrance of ants into the bottle through the eyelet 34, the bore in the plug 19, the inner tube 26, the intervening space 43 between the tubes 26 and 28 and the hole 30 in said outer tube. In actual practice in use of the safety ant-poison bottle 10 for control of ants the labyrinth 16 appears to offer no impediment whatever to ants seeking access to the poison 17 in the bottle, or to their escaping from the bottle after feeding.

It is desired also to point out that, if even by shaking the bottle, a very small amount of liquid poison might be caused to flow inwardly through the small hole 30 into the outer tube 28, this would tend to distribute itself over the inner surface of the outer tube 28 or the outer surface of the inner tube 26 so that when the bottle 10 is inverted as shown in FIG. 4, none of this liquid poison would be inside the inner tube 26 and thus none of it could flow outwardly and be available to children attempting to gain access to the attractive looking liquid poison 17 within the bottle.

While the invention has been described as employing an improved safety bottle cap 31 for securing the labyrinth 1-6 in place and preventing its removal from the bottle, it is to be understood that the invention may be simplified to eliminate the necessity for the use of such a cap or any cap at all for that matter, by cementing the sealing element 18 in the bottle neck thereby rendering removal of this by a child practically impossible.

In another modification of the invention, the sealing element 18 could be made without the flange 20 and comprising merely the plug 19 and the latter could be pushed into the bottle neck bore 14 flush with the outer end thereof and the safety ant-poison bottle 10 thus assembled would be used in the control of ants and after it has served its usefulness with one charge of ant poison, be thrown away and carried out with the trash.

We claim:

1. In combination:

an ant-poison bottle having a neck;

labyrinth means 'within said bottle, said means including an apertured sealing means closing said neck;

a first tube mounted on said sealing means to communicate at its outer end with the aperture of said sealing means, the inner end of said tube being open; and

a second tube of a substantially larger diameter and length than the first and enclosing the first tube and defining a reservoir storage means with a capacity to hold liquid poison of a quantity substantially in excess of the capacity of said first tube, said tube also being mounted on said sealing means and being closed at both ends,

there being a labyrinth inner opening provided in the wall of said second tube at a point disposed approximately centrally in the space enclosed by said bottle,

said first tube extending into said second tube beyond said opening; and

liquid poison confined in said bottle in such a limited quantity that the upper level thereof in various positions of said bottle will be below said point.

2. A safety device for use with a conventional antpoison bottle having a neck, said device comprising:

apertured sealing means for sealing closed the neck of said bottle; and

labyrinth means provided on said sealing means and extending into said bottle, when said device is applied thereto,

said labyrinth means providing a narrow passage leading from the exterior of the bottle to a point disposed approximately centrally in the space enclosed by said bottle where said passage means opens into said space, said labyrinth means consisting in a tube mounted on said sealing means to communicate outwardly with the aperture therein, said tube being open at its inner end, and

a second tube of a substantially larger diameter and length than and enclosing said first tube and defining a reservoir storage means with a capacity to hold liquid poison of a quantity substantially in excess of the capacity of said first tube, said tube also being mounted on said sealing means and closed at both ends; said opening in said labyrinth means at said central point being provided in the wall of said second tube,

said first tube extending into said second tube beyond said opening.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,061,748 5/1913 Jacobus 215-79 1,436,917 11/1922 Simpson 215-79 1,913,531 6/1933 Block 215-11 2,060,245 11/ 1936 Rosenfield 43-131 2,234,500 3/1941 Moore 43-121 2,632,280 3/1953 Heim 43-131 X 3,173,566 3/1965 Talbert 215-79 2,485,402 12/1969 Tunstall 215-9 ALDRICH F. MEDBERY, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 43-121; 215-9, 79 

